


Discomfort

by Naina



Series: World of Comfort [7]
Category: Top Gear (UK) RPF
Genre: Frustration, Gen, International Travel, Loneliness, M/M, Regret, Sharing a room with the top gear orangutan
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-29
Updated: 2016-03-29
Packaged: 2018-05-29 22:20:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 326
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6396187
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Naina/pseuds/Naina
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>5 times during their relationship they didn’t sleep together, and one time beforehand.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Discomfort

5\. British Columbia, November 2014  
To James’s consternation, none of the crew will give him Richard’s room number. After three nights on a snowy mountaintop, he’d figured Richard would insist on the company of a nice warm bedfellow; he can't get more than a surly text from the man. It takes a stern warning from Andy for him to back off and leave Hammond alone.

4\. Argentina, October 2014  
Broken ribs are not conducive to snuggling. Neither is the presence of angry war veterans outside their hotel, or the sour feeling that this trip might not go over as well as they’d hoped.

3\. Burma, October 2013  
They’ve spent the last two weeks being rained on, broiling in their own sweat, or soaked in river water. Richard’s lorry reeks of diesel and mold, and James’s tent is permeated with what can only be called a foul stench. At the end, in Bangkok, they do have a nice comfy bed in a hotel room...but it’s a suite shared with Jeremy.

2\. Tanzania, October 2012  
They’re camping out of their cars. That’s reason enough. 

1\. India, October 2011  
The flights to and from Mumbai are the closest they get to privacy over the entire trip. Surrounded as they are by a few hundred strangers, it’s still not possible to share space as they’d like; in the quiet of Business class, they can lie down and have hushed conversations until one or both of them fall asleep.

+

0\. Syria, December 2010  
Richard doesn't think about the Bethlehem trip all that often. He'd enjoyed it at the time (aside from the gastric upset), but looking back, James’s accident tends to overshadow all other details, and he can't help but feel regret. That he hadn’t stayed with James at their hotel, checking the concussion every couple hours, or held a hand marked by an IV needle. He wishes he had, and that he'd noticed, then, how lonely James had been.


End file.
